If your waste is found to be fly-tipped by an unregistered waste carrier, both you and the fly-tipper can be prosecuted.

We’ve been sharing this message since March 2019, when we launched our ‘It’s Your Duty to Care’ campaign. The awareness campaign was created to highlight the importance, and legal responsibility, of householders to check that you use registered waste carriers when disposing of household waste, because – whether you’re getting rid of old furniture, televisions, computers, and so on – it’s your duty to care where your waste ends up.

If you don’t, you could be prosecuted.

But, how to measure whether the campaign worked? We needed to find out whether members of the public were becoming more aware of the household Duty of Care over the years the campaign ran. Here’s how we got on…

To summarise, the campaign was a success!

To measure the campaign, we created a survey for adults in Wales, asking questions to test their knowledge and understanding of waste disposal legal powers.

  • Results of the campaign shows that 64% of people have an understanding of Waste Duty of Care by March 2022, in comparison to 56% at the beginning of the campaign in 2019.
  • 44% of people know to use a registered contractor to prove compliance with Duty of Care rules, in comparison to 25% at the beginning of the campaign.
  • Now, 79% of people know that they can be prosecuted if their rubbish is fly tipped - in comparison to 74% at the beginning of the campaign.
  • Lastly, 59% of people know that the fly-tipper can also be prosecuted if the fly-tipper, an unregistered waste carrier, is found to have fly-tipped rubbish.

Luckily for us, and now for you, our campaign had a good impact – with 1 in 4 participants of our survey having heard about the campaign!

One of the key highlights? A significant difference between awareness in 2019 versus awareness in 2022, as the understanding of Waste Duty of Care has spread throughout the nation.

In addition to better understanding of Waste Duty of Care, there has also been a positive shift in understanding of who can be prosecuted for fly-tipping.

43% of people correctly answered that both themselves and the fly-tipper can be prosecuted if you do not follow your waste duty of care.

So, what next?

After listening to your thoughts, we will be updating our toolkits and sending them over to local authorities across Wales to provide easily accessible information on fly-tipping and Waste Duty of Care – helping local Councils share the news with communities across Wales.

We’ll also be keeping our website updated with ways you can avoid accidental fly-tipping with blogs, and sharing e-newsletters to all those wishing to stay up to date with our work.

Lastly, we want to say thank you to YOU, for supporting our work and our Duty of Care campaign.

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